Often identified and promoted in European and national policy documents as one of the standards of education for democratic culture and citizenship, critical thinking (CT) is deemed especially important in teacher education. What it means and how it can be implemented and trained in teaching and learning, however, continue to be relevant questions that an impressive and ever-growing body of research literature is still addressing. As long as these basic questions have not yet been answered decisively, and the assumption that it is important for democratic education remains valid, CT can be considered a critical issue in teacher education. This paper aims to contribute an in-depth and theory-based understanding of the meaning of, and conditions for, CT in upper secondary school English teacher education programs in Sweden. To accomplish this aim, I will examine course syllabi at ten Swedish universities (half of those that offer upper secondary school English teacher education programs), using a document analysis method inspired by conceptual historians’ analyses of the semantic fields of concepts. The semantic field I am interested in is based on the contemporary theoretical models of CT in education respectively espoused by the critical thinking movement, critical pedagogy, and the “criticality” movement. Although individual teacher educators’ and students’ own practice might be best for observing CT in action, the course syllabi, which are legally binding documents in Sweden, offer a good indication of the meaning of CT and the conditions for it in the education of English language teachers.